cover image To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing and the Mysterious Death of Its Creator

To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing and the Mysterious Death of Its Creator

Steve Eubanks, . . Ballantine/ESPN, $26 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-345-51081-5

Eubanks (Golf Freek ) tells the story of long-forgotten golf professional J. Douglas Edgar, an Englishman from Newcastle who was one of the best players of the early 1920s. Edgar, who Eubanks argues created the modern golf swing, moved to Atlanta in 1919, where he influenced young Bobby Jones. Edgar died there on West Peachtree Street on an August night in 1921 at the age of 36 from a mysterious puncture wound to his thigh. Comer Howell, a 20-year-old reporter and son of Clark Howell, influential owner of the Atlanta Constitution , was one of three newspapermen who found a bleeding Edgar in the street and witnessed his last moments. The key question is whether Edgar was hit by a car, as first believed, or was the victim of murder by a jealous husband whom Edgar might have cuckolded. It makes for a fascinating tale, reviving Edgar’s legend and portraying the city of Atlanta and the game of golf in that era. Students of golf history and Atlanta’s past will find much of interest here. However, the narrative suffers from a lack of focus, with meandering passages that drift from the central story and overuse of dialect to recreate Edgar’s North English accent. (Apr.)